Seven months after their latest flop the Searchers were in a desperate situation. Tony Hatch – who had produced all their records for Pye – and the Searchers parted

company – due to musical differences. So November 1967 saw the first ever Searchers own production and the first single with both sides written by the group.Second Hand Dealer was written by Mike (music) and Frank (lyrics), although credited to McNally / Pender. The other side Crazy Dreams was credited to John and Mike but it was John all by himself

We were on a tour of Sweden in 1966. Chris Curtis was out of the band and John Blunt was on drums. At one gig we were supported by a group called The Second Hand Dealers. We were all intrigued by the name and Mike Pender and I decided to write a song with that title. I can`t remember now which came first, the tune or the lyrics but the tune was entirely Mike`s and the lyrics were entirely mine.
We were scratching in the dark as far as knowing what to record but decided to try it out as a single. Probably not very wisely. In fact it was quite catchy and I am still pleased with the construction and scan of the words but it was a bit weak to try to get back into the favour of the record buying public. At that point we needed something very strong indeed to halt the slide, and that song wasn't strong enough.

Frank Allen  (thanks to Peter)

The lack of success caused Pye not to renew their record contract. So in their fifth year with Pye they were fired.

below: Danish cover

It took another year until our group could issue another single